After nearly sixteen years of waiting, the ever forthcoming Realms of Sorcery will be released within the next weeks. There is a question every WFRP-player in the world asks: Will it really meet the expetations after such a long time of waiting?

STRIKE TO STUN will give you an answer to this questions! STRIKE TO STUN chief editor Natascha Chrobok belongs to the group of lucky individuals, who were were able to read the book before its official release date to give you a detailed review of Realms of Sorcery:

I have to admit that I was not sure what to expect. But after reading it I know the anser: Yes! It was worth to wait! Realms of Sorcery is superb. On more than 250 pages you can find tons of background material, rules for casting and creating spells, creating magic items, over 350 new spells and much more. The Cover and the artwork are professional and very Warhammer-like. The book is available in three versions: a hard-cover, a soft-cover and a limited leatherbound version. Those who expect that Realms of Sorcery is just a collection of new rules and spells will be disappointed... Realms of Sorcery is more than that!

The book starts with an introduction about magick. The first chapters describe much about the ancient wizards of the High elves, who learned their arts at the knees of the Old Ones, the first incursion of Chaos thousands of years ago and the great incursion of Chaos during the time of Magnus the pious, who asked the High Elves of Ulthuan for help to fight back the hordes of Chaos. With the assistance of the High Elf Teclis the modern forms and colleges of Magick were found. Also described in the first chapters is the theory about the essence of magick: according to Teclis, Magic is the pure energy of Chaos, which enters the world via the Warpgates at the poles in the Northern and Southern Chaos wastes. When entering the world, this pure energy divides into eight "colours" of magick which flood through the world. The chaotic origin of pure magic is the reason that magicians can easily corrupted by practicing Magick. Only the most skilled of the High Elf Wizards are able to control all colours of Magick, the lesser races often can control one or two colours without being corrupted. This is the reason why the Imperial Colleges of Colour Magick only teach their members the knowledge about one colour-aspect. This minimizes the chance that the wizards will be corrupted by Chaos. Practitioners of Dark Arts like Necromancers or Demonologists draw their energies from the pure magick which easily corrupts them.

In the following the book describes the typical life of a wizard. You learn much about the hard way from apprenticeship over jouneymanship to finally attain the mastership of wizardry. A new thing is that every wizard needs an official license which has to be issued by official institutions (town council).

In the next chapters there is an description of the various archetypes of wizards. I will try to give you a short overview of what you have to expect:

The first chapter describes the so-called Hedge-wizards, self-taught magic-users which have no official education. They can brew love-potions, look after farmer Millers sick cow, work as midwives and can be found living in small cottages in the wood, accompanied by a black cat or a raven: one can say that they are the typical witches ... Although they are very limited in their powers, as they often never had a teacher or even never learned to read, they are not bound by any hindrances like oaths and the like in their access to various spells. This means that they can learn nearly all spells available, although this is very expensive for them (400 xp per spell per spell level). Hedge-wizards also can learn higher level spells than their actual level is. This means, a lvl 1 hedge-wizard would be able to learn and cast a lvl 4 spell although he would have to pay 1600 points to acquire this spell and it would be very exhausting to cast it.

In the next section information about Battle Magick can be found. The chapter describes the various colleges and guilds of Battle Magick. It is very impressing that the authors managed to include both, classical WFRP-magic-guilds as well as the newer WFB colleges of Magick. From the Wizards and Alchemists guild of Middenheim over the University college of Nuln to the Imperial Colleges of Magick in Altdorf, every Guild and college is described in detail. The main focus of this chapter lies in the description of the Imperial colleges of Colour-magick. Although the wizards of the Imperial Colleges are bound to only one colour of magick, they are highly specialized in it. This means that they are able to rise to level 5 wizards! Each College gets his own description (history, background, skills, spell access, noteworthy members, etc.). All battle magicians have access to petty and battle magick spells, the members of the Imperial colleges also have access to the highly specialized spells of their own college which makes them very powerful and unique among the other battle magicians.

The description of the Art of Illusion can be found in the next chapter. Unlike Battle Wizards, who are masters in the art of war, the Illusionists specialize in confusing and irritating the minds of others. The chapter describes the history and background of Illusionists in the Empire. Additionally, the two major guilds of illusionists also get a detailed description: the Empire college of Illusions placed in the farmlands outside of Übersreik, and the college of "Lugenheim", the home of lies.

At the following pages the reader can find the background about Elementalism. The history of this form of magick predates the time of Magnus and Teclis and is very different from the common form of Battle Magick. At the Eldritch University of Nuln, and the four Colleges of Elementalism, the Earth college in Stirland, the Air college in the grey mountains, the Fire College in Bechhafen, Ostermark and the Water College placed on the Wasserburg (Water castle) near river Teufel in Reikland, young wizards are introduced into the mysteries of Elementalism. Like Battle Wizards, Elementalists can become level 5 Magicians and with their highly specialized, elemental-based spells they can become very powerful. The new Elementalist career is a serious alternative to the ordinary Battle Wizard and I guess many players will choose this career.

The next chapter treats with one of the most unattractive career of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: the Alchemists. Because of their limited access to Spells, this career always was something like a stepchild of the game. I wonder if somebody ever played an alchemist (besides of some Hardcore-role-players, like Teka, a player one of in my groups...). But with the new description in Realms of Sorcery, the Alchemist becomes more attractive and powerful. Although he may not be good in casting spells, he is a specialist in brewing potions, elixirs and combustibles as well as a master chemist. A wide range of specialist spells makes the Alchemist unique among the other wizards. Although he might be no Spell wielding Battle-machine, the "new" Alchemist will become a useful member of every gaming party.

The cold and harsh lands of Kislev have created their own kind of Magick: Ice magic. It is clear that a land, in which winter reigns nearly half of the year, influenced the evolution of Magick. The Kislevite Shamans practice a unique form of magick, which is based on the effects of frost and winter. The strong influence of winter makes the Ice-magicians more powerful during the winter-months, but weakens them in the summer months. Also they are more powerful, the more northward they come. This dependence on seasons and geographical location makes the Kislevite shamans a very intriguing career.

Besides of the major colleges of Battle magic and elementalism, there are many small guilds, colleges and secret societies of magic-users throughout the Empire. In the Chapter "Minor Cults", RoS takes a look at these small societies. From the College of Öbelstein, which concentrates on Zone-magic to the Children of Teclis, a secret society of Mages who believes in the heretic theory, that chaos can only be fought by those who understood it, each of the smaller colleges is described in detail.

On the next pages the description of the Masters of Magic, the Elves can be found. The main focus lies on Wood Elf Magic, which is very different to the magic available to humans. Besides of the information about Wood elf mages there is also a description of Dryads and NPC-High Elven Wizards (their magick is far too powerful to give it into the hands of the players...).

The following two chapters handle Runes. There has to be made a distinction between the Rune Magic of Dwarfs and the Rune Mastery some humans acquire. Being a race with almost no magical aptitude, the dwarfs created their own techniques to make use of the magic which floods through the world. By inscribing runes, the Rune smiths, as the dwarfen magicians are known, channel the powers of magic to create powerful artefacts. The chapter about Dwarfen Rune Magic describes the careers of Rune smiths (Apprentice, Rune smith, Master Rune smith and Rune Lord) as well as the forging of Runes. Very different than Dwarfen Rune Magic is the human science of Rune Mastery. Although it has its origins in dwarfen Rune Magic, the human form is weaker and lacks of the permanence of the dwarfish art. Based on the theories of the wizard Klausner, who was taught the secrets of Runes by an old Dwarfen Rune smith thousand years ago, the practice of Rune Mastery is very risky. Not only that it isn't tolerated by the Imperial Colleges and the Inquisition, a Rune Master has to live in constant fear of the Dwarfs, who see the existence of Rune Mastery as a violation of their ancient knowledge and believe, that Klausner stole their ancient secrets. Both, the Dwarfen Rune smith as well as the human Rune Master are very interesting careers and will add much flavour to the Game.

The secrets of the forbidden Arts are described on the next few pages. All forbidden Arts have in common that they draw their energy on the pure essence of chaos. Besides of Demonology and Necromancy there are the arts Dark Magic and Chaos Magic. While Dark Magic draws its power from the purest sources of Chaos, the art of Chaos Magic is granted by one of the Chaos Powers (Tzeentch, Slaneesh, Nurgle). Needless to say that all forbidden Arts are corrupting everybody who is insane enough to practice it.

Skaven-magic is very different to other forms of Magic. Being a race created by Chaos, the Skaven are a race with a high affinity to Warpstone. The dark and corrupting powers of this materialized form of chaos lends the Skaven Sorcerers the energy they need to cast spells. In the Chapter about Skaven Magic there is a description of the Grey Seers, the powerful ruling caste within the Skaven Society as well as the description of the Sorcerers of Clan Pestilence and Clan Skyre. Also, there is a description of Warpstone Weapons like the Skaven Jezzails, the poison wind globes and the Warp fire Throwers. The description of the Horned Rat, the god of the Skaven completes this chapter.

Another form of Magic is Greenskin or Waaagh! Magic. This special form of magic practiced by Orc and Goblins shamans works very different than other types of magic. The power of a goblinoid shaman depends on the power of the Waaagh! This means, the shaman depends on the presence of goblinoid minds: the more blood lusty goblinoids are around, the more powerful is the magic, a shaman can wield. Unfortunately, this power can become greater than the shaman can handle. In the worst case in can make the shaman explode...

It seems that presence of Magick automatically attracts the attention of Witch Hunters. And what would be a book about Magic without a description of its greatest enemies. Describing the history and background of Witch hunters, this small section also introduces a new career: the Exorcist. This highly spezalised Wizards devout their lives in hunting down ghosts, daemons and those who would summon them. Although the range of spells available for them is limited to Defensive and Banishment spells, this Wizards can become a real menace to supernatural beings like Daemons.

The next chapters treat the magic and spells itself. The Chapter "Spell Casting and Creation" informs about the difference between spells and rituals (which take longer to cast but are more powerful), the performing of spells (when whispering a spell there is a chance that it will not work), how to resist spells and how to research and create new spells. Within the Chapter "Magic Items" a wide range of new magical artefacts is introduced to the game as well as the rules for creating Magical Items can be found. On the next 70 pages over 350 new spells form all categories are described. Starting with a wide range of new petty magic spells, some of them useful, some of them funny (my favourite is Butterfingers, who causes the target to drop everything held in hand) the Spells-section describes hundreds of interesting spells. Much of the new Battle Magic Spells have been previously released in old WFRP-supplements like The Restless Dead, Drachenfels or the old Warhammer Companion. But also a lot of new specialist spells for the Colleges of Colour Magick, new Elementalist spells, new Illusions, a section about Dwarfen Runes, a second one about Rune Mastery, new Necromantic Magick, Ice Magic, Waaagh magic, Skaven Magic, Chaos Rituals and, and and..... Most of the Spells are useful and were created with much love in details. The only drawback I can see is that some of the spells can be recognized as conversions of WFB-spells. The whole section is very inspiring and full of interesting details. One of the most interesting spell I found in Realms of Sorcery is the ritual of the Liche, which describes how a Necromancer can become a Liche.

The book finishes with a chapter about familiars and a section with general hints for the game master how to handle magic in the game. Especially the later section is in my opinion a little bit too small and could have handled the topic in more detail. An Index of the various spells and where they can be found on the last pages rounds completes the book.

After reading Realms of Sorcery I have to say that RoS is the best thing Hogshead ever produced (besides of the WFRP book and the Enemy within campaign, which are both reprints). Although I don't agree with everything I have to say that most of the material is superb. The book is clearly arranged, full of nice artwork and holds tons of interesting background material. The texts are easily written and you will enjoy every page. Those who expected a lot of additional rules might be disappointed: the very strength of "Realms of Sorcery" lies in the description of the background, which is in my opinion more important for a good role-playing game than hundreds of senseless rules which needlessly complicate the game. What really fascinated me is the fact that Hogshead managed the acrobatic act to include the Warhammer Fantasy Battle background without destroying the balance or the flavour of the game. Since the first release of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay the background of the Warhammer World changed significantly and it is not easy to create a compromise between the old and the new background. But it seems that the Authors managed it!

All in all I have to admit that waiting for nearly 16 years was worth every day. Okay, other Role-playing systems might have more spells or more detailed rules but I knew no game which has a so detailed background. It is clear that not everybody will like everything within the book, but the long time of waiting made it really hard to meet all expectations. I thought long about which ranking I should award to Realms of Sorcery. It is not perfect, some things are still missing, but on the other side it is the best product I have seen since a long time. But finally I decided to give it a Stun Factor of 10, the best ranking in the STRIKE TO STUN-ranking system. I can recommend Realms of Sorcery to every WFRP-player, it is really worth to buy it. A last word to those who will not be satisfied with Realms of Sorcery and who do not agree with my opinion about it: Do you really know what you want?

(nc)